Thirty Years and still Frank Maynard's Original Ben Folds Website
As has been previously announced, Ben Folds’ new album So There comes out on September 11, 2015, and the press is heating up with articles and previews.
So There represents a turning point in Ben’s musical adventures. Last year he teamed up with the New York-based string sextet yMusic to create what represents a departure from his rougher roots and continuing his trend toward working with classical orchestras. (more…)
Ben Folds
That’s how NPR music critic Bob Boilen describes Capable of Anything, the first track from the Ben Folds/yMusic album So There, which dropped today on NPR’s All Songs Considered website.
Calling it “the most lovable piece of music I’ve ever heard from Ben Folds,” Boilen praises how yMusic fills in and punctuates the lyrics, which Ben says are about needing to accept and embrace the things you purport to be capable of doing – even the ones that you’re not so proud of. Indeed, the song is a piano romp backed up seamlessly by the lilting flute and neo-baroque winds and strings that yMusic brings to the mix.
The album So There is slated for a September 11 release. Folds and yMusic continue their summer tour.
Ben has teamed up with yMusic, an ensemble of six exciting instrumental musicians in their 20s and 30s with impressive credentials on both the pop and classical side. Ben’s “new band”, as he puts it, are putting the finishing touches on an album, to be titled So There (which will include at least parts of his concerto) and will be touring the US and elsewhere as Ben Folds & yMusic starting in mid-April; dates are still being arranged, though they’ve been booked to play the 2015 Bonnaroo Festival on June 12.
The sextet, comprised of violinist and guitarist Rob Moose, trumpet and French horn player C. J. Camerieri, cellist Gabe Cabezas, flutist Alex Sopp, clarinetist and multi-instrumentalist Hideaki Aomori, and violinist Nadia Sirota released their second album, Balance Problems, late last year. Each has also recorded solo or with others in every genre from classical to jazz and pop.
Ben heard about yMusic last summer and contacted them about a collaboration. (more…)
Even though most, if not all, of the songs will be out and about already, the reunited Ben Folds Five’s recently recorded album The Sound of the Life of the Mind will be officially released on September 18 through Ben’s longtime Sony Music affiliation. Taking a leaf from the PledgeMusic campaign making contributors all “vice-presidents of promotion,” the album’s on the “ImaVeePee Records” imprint.
In addition to the already-out Do It Anyway, the Folds/Sledge/Jessee collab contains the tracks Erase Me, Michael Praytor Five Years Later, Sky High, The Sound of the Life of the Mind, On Being Frank, Draw a Crowd, Hold That Thought, Away When You Were Here, and Thank You For Breaking My Heart.
Fans who donated to the PledgeMusic project will get access to the tracks earlier than the album release date.
A short tour of US venues has been announced for September and early October, followed by a few dates in Australia and several in the UK and Ireland; details are on the tour dates page.
The as-yet unnamed upcoming album by the reunited Ben Folds Five, due out in late summer or early fall, is seeking subscription support from fans for distribution via Pledge Music. Through the Pledge Music system, one makes a “pledge” or payment of financial support and, depending on the amount chosen, can receive a variety of rewards ranging from a digital download of the finished project to signed CDs, tour t-shirts and a vinyl pressing. For the Ben Folds Five project, a basic download is $10, and other premiums range upward to $62. Though the project reached its monetary goal less than a day after being launched, one can still enroll and claim one of the premiums. (more…)
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